A pair of mobile homes stand near the south edge of property used by Henry's Turkey Service in Atalissa in 2009. The town's water tower is at background left.

After hearing several days of testimony and evidence, an Iowa jury determined that the 32 mentally disabled men who were mistreated and abused by Henry's Turkey Service were entitled to $7.5 million each. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in its brief to the court, acknowledged that the award was "an appropriate and meaningful measure of the actual harm suffered."

These men will never receive the full measure of justice because politicians in Washington arbitrarily decided that anyone who brings this kind of lawsuit, no matter how egregious the circumstances, should ever receive more than $50,000 apiece.

The cap on damages in the Henry's case, like all damage caps, overrules the will of the jury and imposes one-size-fits-all injustice. Everyone would do well to remember this the next time some advocacy group or politician argues that damages in lawsuits should be arbitrarily capped.